“Who? Please tell me!”

She decided to give him a little, what he might have tapped from Fleet communications if his people were good enough.

“Sassinak. She wanted to know if the Governor were officially involved in Ireta. Captain Cruss, the heavy-worlder on that colony ship, thought so. The Theks got it out of him. With Tanegli’s trial coming up, she wanted to know whether to suggest that the Fleet subpoena the

Governor.”

“Ahhh. About what we thought. But how were you, a physician, supposed to find out such things?”

“I’d told her about you. She said I should come.” That wasn’t quite accurate, but if he believed she had been pushed into it, he might be sympathetic.

“I see. Your descendant, being a professional, does not consider your feelings, your natural reluctance. Not very sensitive, your Sassinak.”

“Oh, she is,” Lunzie said quickly. “She is sensitive, she just . . . She just thinks of duty first.”

“Commendable in a Fleet officer, no doubt, but not in a great-great-great-granddaughter. She should have more respect.”

“It’s a problem,” Lunzie admitted. “But she’s actually older than I am—real time, at least—and she has trouble seeing me as her elder. We both do.” She squirmed a little getting a stiff wrinkle out from under her hip. “But that’s why I came . . . really.”

“And I am to offer you just the information you seek, and ask you to smuggle out more. But you will be found to have instead information of great commercial value. You will be discredited as a commercial spy, detained long enough that you cannot testify against Tanegli. Your taped evidence will not be nearly as effective, and if Kai and Varian are not there ...” “Why shouldn’t they be?”

“Contract scientists with EEC? Easy enough to send

an all too special ship to collect them to attend the

Assizes. It should not be hard for those with adequate

resources to be sure they arrive late. Or not at all.”

Lunzie shivered. How could she warn Kai and Varian?